- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
INVESTIGATION into two members of a grooming gang that took advantage of vulnerable girls in Huddersfield has led to more convictions.
Mohammed Akram was found guilty by a Leeds Crown Court of a number of offences such as rape, abduction and trafficking. Usman Khalid, a second member of the grooming gang, was convicted of sexually assaulting the same victim.
Akram was just five months into his 17-year prison sentence when he returned to stand trial in relation to new allegations.
Opening the case for the prosecution, Richard Wright QC said the victim was “deliberately targeted by men who wanted to use her for their own sexual purposes.”
Both the men had “sexual contact” with the girl despite knowing she was underage.
The duo was investigated as part of a gang that groomed girls between 2004 and 2011 in West Yorkshire.
Akram was unanimously found guilty of rape of a child under the age of 13, three counts of rape, abduction of a child and trafficking for sexual exploitation.
The 33-year-old from Springdale Street, Huddersfield, was also found guilty of sexual assault.
He was acquitted of one count of rape.
Usman Khalid of Brook Street, Huddersfield, was found guilty of sexual assault of a child under the age of 13.
Wright said that the actions of the two defendants contributed towards the girl being “drawn into a world in which she had little or no control of her life and was utterly unable to make truly free or informed choices about anything where sex was concerned”.
Last year, 20 of the gang’s members were sentenced for abusing 15 girls. They were given a total jail term of 257 years between them.
Akram and Khalid will be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court at a later date.
